Might Have Broken the Law With Threats
DAN FRIEDMAN AND DAVID CORN
JUN. 30, 2017 3:51 PM
... Whether they realized it or not, Scarborough and Brzezinski were accusing the president and his aides of committing an action that might have been a crime. Several attorneys say the White House officials who called Scarborough to convey the threat — and Trump himself—might have broken a federal extortion law, as well as a blackmail law and a New York state law against extortion or coercion ...
“We got a call that, ‘Hey, the National Enquirer is going to run a negative story about you guys,'” Scarborough said on the show. “And they said, ‘If you call the president up and you apologize for your coverage then he would pick up the phone and basically spike this.’…The calls kept coming and they were like, ‘You need to call, please call.'” Scarborough did not identify the aides who pressed him to apologize ...
“One could certainly argue coercion,” says Matthew Galluzzo ..who previously worked as a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s office ..
Ted Williams, a criminal defense attorney in .. DC, echoes this view. “This case could very well be extortion,” he says. “If these are the facts, you have the president of the United States colluding with a newspaper based in Florida and its owner to make certain things happen with a threat. It is a strong possibility that an extortion case can be made, and also a conspiracy case should be looked at. Here was a threat: You kiss the brass ring or you are exposed. I would hope the FBI would get involved” ...
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/06/trump-and-his-aides-might-have-broken-the-law-with-morning-joe-threats/
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